A La Bugs
by Akebo
Summary: When Sora finds himself in a neardeath situation, he is rescued by the surly Pumbaa and Timon. And gets treated to some food... 'Slimy...yet satisfying...' Sora100 Taste Theme


A La Bugs   
_A KH One-Shot_

The savannah sun beat unmercifully down on Sora, heating up his furred little body and making his tongue pant out in large gasps to try and keep cool as he trekked through the wastelands, tail twitching behind him. His body screamed for some water; it felt like hours had passed since his last drink. And maybe it had. In the Pride Lands, it seemed like an eternal sun hung overhead, always noon; the sun never waning and giving the poor lion cub some sort of refuge.

As Sora padded across the wasteland of the planet, greeted only by cracked cobblestone ground and unnerving animal skulls that occupied the expanse of space, his de-hydrated brain tried to work out an explanation. He _had _been fighting a recent uprising of lion Heartless with Goofy and Donald…when he was hit from behind by something and sent rolling down a steep hill into a thorn bushel that hadn't been fun to escape. Now he was walking the desert in hopes of finding someone, _anyone_ to help him.

How long had time passed, anyway? It may have been a few minutes, or maybe an hour, but the endless expanse of desert made it seem like it had been days of walking nowhere. Nothing but a vulture dotted on the horizon, waiting for the time when Sora gave up and collapsed from the unbearable heat.

But years of optimism hadn't been lost on Sora. He still kept hoping; _'Just a little further…only a little bit more to walk…'_ Maybe if he just moved a bit _further_, he could finally find some sort of oasis and relax until he moved off again. But after all this time, he didn't know how long he could keep pushing ahead.

His muscles felt strained; sore like he had walked a thousand miles (had he?); his eyes watered from the intense heat and his tongue, drained of his only coolant: salvia, felt fuzzy and dry as dust. The crown necklace he wore only served as a heavy weight that kept his head hung low.

The combination was like a hot, heavy hand pressing him to lie on the cracked ground and die; become a skull similar to the ones that surrounded him, facing towards an unreal hope that maybe something would help him cool off. Water, shade, _anything_…

'_Just…a little…'_ Even his optimism was starting to fail him. What was the point, anyway? His eyelids grew heavy, his body sagged. All he wanted to do was sleep. Sleep and escape the heat. He stopped walking, lying down on the heated ground. Oh, how he wanted to drift off…

"Giving up already, Sora? That's not like you?" Was he hearing things, or—Sora stood up in excitement. _'Riku! Was he here? How did he find me?'_ He looked down a small distance away. Riku stood, garbed in the same clothes as Sora remembered him in from the island. He was smiling, with his hand outstretched, inviting Sora to come with him. Sora was shocked to hear another voice join the mix.

"That's right. You can't sleep now, ya lazy bum!" _'Kairi!'_ Kairi appeared next to Riku, short hair bouncing in the wind. She grinned at his lion self. "Come on, you've got a promise to fulfill. Remember? 'No matter what, I'll come back to you. No matter…what…'" Their images were waving, rippling as if seen through a pool of water.

"_No matter what…_" Kairi's body started to disappear. Her voice called to him as if she were shouting through a long tunnel.

"Kairi!" Sora yelled, chasing after her fading image. No matter how fast he ran on his blistered paws, both her and Riku disappeared from his view. "No…" he sighed. His body felt heavier than ever; the extra running having pushed his overtaxed body to its limit, and he slumped over, slipping into unconsciousness.

* * *

Sora's eyes opened slowly, his bleary mind trying to straighten itself out and sharpen reality. When he blinked and could see, he found that he was under a dense canopy of trees that blocked most of the sun from him. Sora groaned as he stood up. His body felt horrible, tense and sore. And he was hungry too.

He looked around a bit, trying to discern his surroundings. He appeared to be in a clearing of some sort, a bed of leaves covering the ground to make it easier to sleep. As soon as he realized he was alive and someone had found him, he heard voices from between the trees. Sora leaned back into bed and closed his eyes, trying to hear what they were saying.

"I'm telling you! If we bring in any more lion cubs, we might as well run our own daycare! Eesh, I'm too old for this…"

"Aw, but Timon…look at the little guy. He's so cute and furry. Besides, he was nearly dead! Maybe he'll be grateful and we can raise him just like we raised Simba." Sora's heart thumped beneath his clothes. These guys knew Simba! Maybe they knew a way back to the Elephant Graveyard…and the gummi ship, where Donald and Goofy were undoubtedly waiting for him.

"But what if he tries to _eat_ us? We can't handle a lion like that!" The voice, Timon, paused for a bit. "Hey…I got an idea! What if we raise him like Simba? Then the trio would be back in business!"

"So we can keep him?"

"Sure, Pumbaa, sure."

The voices were almost at the clearing now, so Sora opened an eye to catch a glimpse of his saviors. A warthog and a Meer cat…hadn't he seen them somewhere before? Sora's mind was still really fuzzy, so he didn't try to question it when the memory never came to him. He had to thank them even if he didn't know them.

Sora sat slowly, giving a large, jaw-popping, fanged yawn that had the Meer cat running into the warthog's hair. He grinned at the two. "Thanks for saving me!" he said happily, stretching out the kinks from his sleep.

"Y-you're not gonna eat us?" the Meer cat questioned from within the warthog's mohawk.

"No…should I?" Sora asked with a puzzled glance, trying to remember from his school days if lions ate whatever the prairie-dog looking thing was. When he couldn't remember it, he gave up and settled for a peace offering instead. "No, I won't eat you. But I do want to thank you for helping me. I thought I was a goner."

The warthog broke out into a wide smile. "Hakuna Matata." he replied nonchalantly, moving over to a fallen log at the edge of the clearing. Sora frowned. If lions could frown.

"'Hakuna mawhata'"? Sora asked. The Meer cat hopped from the warthog.

"Yep. It's out motto."

"Motto?"

"Yep. Hakuna Matata. It means 'no worries'."

"No worries…" Sora liked that. 'Hakuna Matata…' it had a certain…flamboyant ring to it. "So thanks…" he frowned when he realized he hadn't asked for the two's name.

"I'm Timon." The Meer cat answered. "And that's Pumbaa." He pointed over to the warthog, who's rear end was up in the air. He was apparently digging for something.

"Whoo. Might want to stay downwind from that one. So…now I guess you can stay here." the Meer cat said, reaching into his ear and flicking out some earwax. Sora stood up in alarm.

"Oh no! I gotta get back! My friends are looking for me!" He turned to the duo. "Do you know where a large ship is?" At Timon's puzzled glance, he groped for some other kind of description. "Oh! The elephant graveyard." When Timon's eyes nearly bulged out of their sockets, Sora knew it struck home.

"T-t-the elephant g-graveyard? W-why would you want to go there?" he stuttered, obviously flustered.

"I have some friends of mine waiting for me there." Timon gave him on odd look that went unnoticed by Sora, as Pumbaa gave back, holding a leaf like a waiter's tray.

"Dinner is served." At Sora's questioning glance, he tipped down the leaf, revealing a pile of slithering, crawling bugs.

"Ew…" Sora couldn't help the childish response before he escaped him. It was just…nasty. A pile of bugs, and he was supposed to _eat _them? Maybe he could still get away…

"Bon Appetite! A la Bugs." Pumbaa declared with a slight French accent. Sora all but turned green in disgust when Pumbaa dug a hoof into the pile and pulled out a large beetle before sticking it in his mouth and chomping down with an audible crunch that made Sora gag.

"Oooh, a delicacy." Timon praised, grabbing a bug and shoving it into his mouth. Sora watched in horror as they devoured creepy-crawly after creepy-crawly, muttered "slimy but satisfying" every so often. He hated to admit it, but watching them eat reminded him that his own stomach was so empty and longing, he could eat just about anything right now.

"D-do you guys have anything, like fish?" Timon shook his head.

"Chicken?"

"Wus Chukun?" said the beetle-filled mouth of Pumbaa.

"Anything else?" Sora pleaded. Timon and Pumbaa shook their heads.

Sora sighed, the persistent urging of his hunger finally drove him over to the drove of insects. He picked one up with his paws; a giant centipede that wiggled for freedom in his grasp.

"Oh w-well." Sora shrugged, still a little nervous about eating these things. Sure, he ate a worm on a dare from Riku when he was older, but spit it out right away. This was something different. And…_gross. _"Hakuna Matata." Sora winced, held open and his maw, and dropped the centipede in. It wiggled on its way down, and Sora could swear it was still in his stomach. _That _was something to haunt him later on.

He noticed Pumbaa and Timon's expectant faces, and realized he was supposed to comment on his meal. He took a leaf from their own food-motto.

"It was…slimy…yet satisfying."

Sora gulped.

He didn't think he was very hungry anymore.

* * *

It seemed like an eternity until night fell on the Pride Lands. Sora and eaten some more (to his displeasure) and finally regained enough energy to leave. But Pumbaa and Timon stopped him on his way out, saying it was much too dangerous to go out now. The hyenas were prowling at this time, and just laughed when Sora claimed he can take on the hyenas. Sora was tempted to show just how powerful he was, but Donald's golden rule of world-travel was "never meddle with the world order." And he thought showing them the Keyblade and its power would fall under "meddling".

So Sora stayed the night, taking a nice swim in the river and hanging out with Timon and Pumbaa. Those two weren't bad and he could see why Simba had fun growing up.

After another eating session (followed by a near-puking session from Sora), Timon Pumbaa, and Sora laid down in a patch of grass to watch the stars. They contemplated what the stars were, laughed over Simba's answer a few years ago. When they turned to Sora for his advice, he snuggled into the grass a little deeper. Maybe just telling them a little bit might not hurt them…

"Those…are other worlds. People live on them, just like you guys live here." he replied, looking up at the trillions of stars. How many more until he was done with his quest? He'd probably have to visit every single one of them. And as Sora watched each star, he couldn't help but ask: 'Which one of those is Destiny Islands?'

"You mean, people are up there, living on those white things?" Timon asked. There was a moment of sience before Timon and Pumba cracked out laughing. "That's even weirder than Simba's explanation! I'd take dead kings over people!"

Sora frowned and fell asleep to memories of his home.

* * *

It was early dawn when Sora awoke to bird calls and the sounds of the jungle. He got up and nudged Timon and Pumbaa awake. To say goodbye and thank you for all of their hospitality before he left.

"Hakuna Matata." Timon replied. "But are you sure you want to leave? I mean, you could stay with us…?" he added hopefully. Sora shook his head, small mane flopping with his movements.

"Nah, I made a promise that I have to keep. But we'll meet again someday. I know it." Pumbaa and Timon nodded. Timon pointed towards the horizon opposite the one Sora had come from.

"Well, alright then kid. If you have to…that's the way to the graveyard…" Sora nodded before bounding out of the clearing, past the trees, and through the desert. It was nightfall again when he reached the elephant graveyard, and beyond it, where Donald and Goofy were waiting for him.

Sora's tail flicked as he jostled up to meet them. All he knew was when he got back to the gummi ship, he was going to brush his teeth until the taste of bugs was permanently scrubbed off.

* * *

A/N: Well, this has to be my longest Sora100 entry since I started. And I've been gone for a while because of it. Well, that, and piano. You know, it's very hard to play that thing...but I'm learning. Slowly if anything. But I can play What I've Done by Linkin Park, so who cares?

Well, it's been a fun summer, but it ends for me on Wednesday, the 22nd. That means more limited updates, but I'll try and whip something up every so often. I don't know my work schedule as of yet so it's kind of hard to schedule around something you're clueless on. I still have weekends, so maybe I can still write these.

7 down already. I had started this almost a year ago, dropped it, and just now picked it back up. And for me, I'll be lucky to finish this at all...it's going okay. I labeled this as "Humor" even if it doesn't really have a specific genre. It isn't that cute, not really angsty, etc. So "general" is also up there. It's just a plain fanfic. I still hope you got some amusement out of it. Please review to tell me what you think.

R&R!

Ja,

Akebo


End file.
